Antediluvian Horror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding thriller, landing October 2025 across major streaming services

An bone-chilling ghostly terror film from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval curse when foreigners become subjects in a supernatural contest. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of staying alive and mythic evil that will reshape terror storytelling this season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy tale follows five young adults who suddenly rise isolated in a hidden lodge under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Prepare to be gripped by a audio-visual event that combines soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the beings no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the deepest part of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a brutal fight between moral forces.


In a bleak terrain, five characters find themselves cornered under the malicious effect and control of a unidentified spirit. As the victims becomes unable to resist her will, severed and targeted by creatures unnamable, they are cornered to stand before their emotional phantoms while the time coldly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and partnerships implode, pushing each protagonist to contemplate their true nature and the concept of autonomy itself. The intensity magnify with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that blends ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to awaken core terror, an evil beyond time, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a power that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering watchers around the globe can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Join this heart-stopping fall into madness. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these terrifying truths about the mind.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. lineup fuses biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, plus tentpole growls

Across life-or-death fear drawn from ancient scripture all the way to franchise returns alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners set cornerstones by way of signature titles, while SVOD players load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is surfing the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal starts the year with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching fright Year Ahead: Sequels, new stories, alongside A hectic Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The arriving terror year crams in short order with a January bottleneck, and then rolls through the mid-year, and well into the winter holidays, combining franchise firepower, new voices, and well-timed release strategy. The major players are relying on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that pivot these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in programming grids, a lane that can scale when it lands and still buffer the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that cost-conscious pictures can own audience talk, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The momentum rolled into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays showed there is an opening for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across players, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of established brands and new pitches, and a renewed focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, furnish a easy sell for ad units and platform-native cuts, and lead with audiences that appear on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the picture works. On the heels of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout signals certainty in that engine. The slate launches with a weighty January stretch, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that extends to Halloween and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the greater integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and scale up at the right moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across linked properties and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just releasing another continuation. They are setting up threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on tactile craft, real effects and concrete locations. That alloy yields 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount fires first with two high-profile releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a throwback-friendly mode without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on iconic art, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are framed as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, makeup-driven mix can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can fuel large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and curated rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is steady enough to generate pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The craft conversations behind this slate foreshadow a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring stage summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that twists the horror of a child’s wobbly senses. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror his comment is here year offers momentum and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.